pullman jct I did a little checking last night. The hole in the wall track is a somewhat of a leftover from the days before the South Branch of the Chicago River was straightened. Prior to that project, the RI had small facility in the NW quadrant of the intersection of Wells and Roosevelt Road. I mistakenly identified that intersection as Clark and Roosevelt in a previous post. Sorry for the confusion. There was no connection at that time from the RI to the B&OCT at Roosevelt Road as that was the location of the old B&OCT bridge. The project resulted in a major reconfiguration of B&OCT trackage, after which the hole in the wall track connected to the GC station lead tracks in GC Tower interlocking.
I did a little checking last night. The hole in the wall track is a somewhat of a leftover from the days before the South Branch of the Chicago River was straightened. Prior to that project, the RI had small facility in the NW quadrant of the intersection of Wells and Roosevelt Road. I mistakenly identified that intersection as Clark and Roosevelt in a previous post. Sorry for the confusion.
There was no connection at that time from the RI to the B&OCT at Roosevelt Road as that was the location of the old B&OCT bridge. The project resulted in a major reconfiguration of B&OCT trackage, after which the hole in the wall track connected to the GC station lead tracks in GC Tower interlocking.
So, are you saying that there never was a track running off of the Rock Island track to Grand Central Station?
Or, was there a track that ran from the Rock Island track to Grand Central Station at a later date?
Rich
Alton Junction
Prior to 1930, the B&OCT bridge across the South Branch was located north of Roosevelt Road. There was no connection to the RI on the east bank of the South Branch.
After 1930, the B&OCT crossed the South Branch on a new bridge at 16th St. New main tracks were installed from the new bridge to Grand Central. At that time a connection was also established between the B&OCT and the RI just NW of Roosevelt and Wells, using the so-called hole in the wall track, which previously had served a RI freight facility at that location.
I hope that clarifies what I was trying to say. Here is a photo of the area during the river straightening project.
http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10583.html
pullman jct Prior to 1930, the B&OCT bridge across the South Branch was located north of Roosevelt Road. There was no connection to the RI on the east bank of the South Branch. After 1930, the B&OCT crossed the South Branch on a new bridge at 16th St. New main tracks were installed from the new bridge to Grand Central. At that time a connection was also established between the B&OCT and the RI just NW of Roosevelt and Wells, using the so-called hole in the wall track, which previously had served a RI freight facility at that location. I hope that clarifies what I was trying to say. Here is a photo of the area during the river straightening project. http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10583.html
Yes, pullman jct, that does clarify what you said before. Thanks.
That photo of the area during the river straightening project is a great one, really one of the best since you can do a variety of things with it including close-in views of specific areas. I have had that photo for years now and refer to it constantly.
The Historic American Engineering Record details the history of the SCAL and B&OCT bridges. Highly recommended if this topic is of interest to anyone.
http://www.historicbridges.org/illinois/sbrr/haer-il-157.pdf
Take a look at this link.
http://forgottenchicago.com/features/bridge-out-for-good/
If you scroll down the page on that link, you will come across a pair of photos, one photo showing the 16th Street bascule bridge before the South Branch of the Chicago River was straightened and another photo next to it showing the old BOCT bascule bridge that crossed the Chicago River diagonally at Taylor Street, That bascule bridge at Taylor Street was later removed and a new bascule bridge was built at 16th Street next to the SCAL bascule bridge. Today, the BOCT bascule bridge at 16th Street is locked permanently in an upright position.
Where can I find such track maps? I am looking for the cb&q as well as the atsf maps for chicago.
raildad71 Where can I find such track maps? I am looking for the cb&q as well as the atsf maps for chicago.
If you want the greatest track plan known to man for the Santa Fe in Chicago, here is the link:
http://www.railsandtrails.com/Maps/Chicago/index.htm#Dearborn
The map is the third one down the page, and it is titled:
Chicago & Western Indiana RailroadHarrison Street to 22nd Street Track MapDearborn Station
When you first look at the map on that web page, it looks to be a very small and very old map. That is deceiving. The map is actually quite large and detailed, but it requires a special browser to view it properly. The browser is free.
The map format is known as DjVu.
It requires a DjVu Plug-in Browser.
I use a browser provided by a firm called Lizard Tech which you can Google. The actual program required to view a DjVu file is called LizardTech DjVu Control DjVuViewer.exe. You can download it free. Try it. It sounds more complicated than it really is. Let me know if you are able, or unable, to view it. It shows every inch of track from Alton Junction at 22nd Street to Dearborn Station at Polk Street, including the ATSF coach yard at 18th Street.
richhotrain bo-Jack, this is great stuff. Thanks for sharing. But the question remains: how did NYC cars get moved from LaSalle Street Station to Northwestern Station for the trip west since there was no direct north-south access to Northwestern Station from the other five downtown stations? Rich
bo-Jack, this is great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
But the question remains: how did NYC cars get moved from LaSalle Street Station to Northwestern Station for the trip west since there was no direct north-south access to Northwestern Station from the other five downtown stations?
I'm quite sure they used the SCAL and over to Western Ave., since that's where the C&NW's coach yard was (still is, now used by Metra) anyway. It actually wouold have been more drawn-out for the eastbound cars, since the switcher would have to take them from North Western Station out to Western Ave., then down and over to the SCAL to the NYC yard. Either way, the cars would have gone through CNW's Spud Yard, now UP's Global 1 intermodal facility.
Union Station is one story below street level, while North Western is one story up from the street or two stories up from Union. (Okay, actually, both stations lie between Canal and Clinton Streets. Canal is elevated to match the level of the streets in the Loop, while Clinton is at ground level. All the east-west streets passing the stations slope down in that block. When I say Union is below and NW is above, I'm referring to the level of Canal.)
David
Great update, David, thanks for the info.
ALL:
Regarding the B&O and C&O; why didn't they use the CUS instead of the round about run to/from the CNW Terminal? What would have been their routes to/from the CUS?
Ed Burns
In a word, cost. C&NW was willing to handle the B&O's Capitol Limited/Columbian and C&O's Pere Marquettes at a little more than the marginal cost. The route to CUS would likely have been exactly the same used to C&NW as far as 14th St, then using the PC/PRR/PCC&St.L Panhandle line to the CUS North Joint Approach. An approach to the south would have been more difficult without involving the C&NW and CB&Q. An easy alternative would have been to use LaSalle, just taking a right at 87th St onto the Rock Island. That option wasn't explored by C&O/B&O as far as I can determine.
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